VALUE OF CHEESE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 143, 18 August 1941, Page 5

VALUE OF CHEESE

BRITAIN RECOGNISES ITS

IMPORTANCE

NOT POPULAR IN NEW ZEALAND

Some 250 dairy farmers of the Rangitaiki Plains have again had reason to know there is a war on. First the cry for increased production found them working as they had not had to do for some time— now there has been the further disruption of their usual programme and farming syllabus with the appeal for cheese production and the compulsory change from supplying cream for butter making "to the supply of whole milk for the manufacture of cheese.

Some may have had experience in this form of production—others being initiated, but all are adapting themselves to the requirements from the industry. A great deal of work and expenditure has been necessary to alter, add,' and generally provide for the requirements of the production and supply of whole milk.

The difficulties have not been few and the least of these in the new drive for cheese is not the lack of labour. The need of men in the factories as well as on the farms is a problem which will add to the difficulties of primary production in war time. Tliese facts liave, however, been dealt with before, and recognised, (ire receiving every attention possible. The point of this article is that it is possible that some people may wonder whl it is that the Old Country is keen 'o take as much cheese as the. Dominion can provide. To investigate the composition of cheese furnishes the answer and illustrates why it would be to the advantage of New Zealanders to cultivate a taste for the product. At present the consumption of cheese in this country averages 011%' one-.third of an ounce per head, and it can be calculated that we should be eating more liko ilcuble that quantitv.

Cheese enters the diet of the Englishman regularly and there is not a restaurant in that country which does not provide bread and cheese If required—and one has only to read English novelties to find how often when: a meal is mentioned the cheese feed is included. By rontrast it is not easy to obtain cheese in New Zealand and in a pastoral country that is indeed a pity. When in years gone by emigrants nrrived to settle in the Dominion they brought their cheese taste with them, but this has been lost to a very great extent. Housewives used to make their own cheese as factories were non-existent when the Philip Laing arrived in 1848! One old recipe treasured was to put the warmed milk into a vat with some rennet, and let it curdle. Then cut up the curd, and strain it through a cloth, putting pressure on to sciueeze out the whey. After adding «alt, the mass was mixed by hand. Then it was pressed and set on a shelf to ripen— and often to win a prize at the Shoxv! But although housewives were not aware of it, they were throwing away a good deal of lime when they fed the whey to the pigs. At the same time they could not squeeze all the whey from the curd, tmd moreover, some of the lime adhered to the curd. In those good old days the modern name for the cur d—protein—was unheard of, but for all that the food was recognised

as a wholesome one

The reason that Britain wants our cheese is that it consists of Approximately one-third protein, onethird fat, and one-third water. Meat is three-quarters water. Both are protein foods, and both aro needed, hut to send cheese away means that more; natural foodstull can be shipped into the same space.

Then again there has ever been a widespread shortage of milk containing lime in the diet of the English people and the cheese seiit from this country and this district will assist in making up the deficiency. Cheese also keeps well and thus is a valuable food for the army. Thus in turning out what is. approximately estimated to be over 5,000 tons of cheese during the, season the factories in the Whakatane district will swell the Dominion effort to provide for the war Mine needs: of Britain both for the civilian and the Fighting Forces.